Classical philosophy and Darwinian biology are far more compatible than is usually assumed. In fact, looking at either from the standpoint of the other can enrich and deepen our appreciation of both. From a Darwinian point of view, the theories of Plato and Aristotle deserve to be taken very seriously. From the classical point of view, Darwinian biology is much less reductionist than its enemies suppose.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Platonic Biology

Theodosius Dhobzhansky famously
wrote that “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.”I gather that Dhobzhansky, an Orthodox
Christian, was arguing against creation scientists and other critics of
Darwinian Theory.I agree with him and will
add one more step. Nothing in Darwinian
Theory makes sense except in light of Plato.

Plato’s Socrates more famously
advanced a theory of forms or ideas as a way of making sense of human
perception and intelligence.In a
nutshell, the theory goes as follows.When we perceive a physical object, say a tree, our perception only
captures one possible perspective on that object.Thus the tree looks small from a distance and
large up close.Likewise we see only one
side of it at a time.It is our
intelligence, not our perceptions, that informs us that the tree is one object
that has not changed as we approach it and circle around it.That one tree is in fact invisible to the eye
and visible only to the intelligence.

We also notice that the tree
itself does seem to change over time‑gray and leafless in November but green
and flourishing in June.Yet it is still
this same tree: an object that is one thing and another as it extends across
the dimension of time.Likewise, we recognize
this tree and another tree as one and the same kind of thing because our
intelligence informs us of a pattern that is more persistent that any
individual tree.Plato (or his Socrates)
supposed that the pattern was more real than the example because it was more
persistent and more knowable.

Plato’s many critics as well as
his misguided disciples (Neoplatonists, for example) neglected to notice that
Socrates usually qualified his speculations by saying that it is only “something
like this”. I think that it is indeed
something like this and that a qualified but genuinely Platonic approach is
necessary to make sense of Darwinian biology.

In this post, I will present some
examples of Darwinian ideas that are in fact Platonic ideas.To begin with, consider this argument: if it’s
a mammal, then it’s an animal; it’s a mammal, therefore it’s an animal.That simple, biological modus ponens
recognizes this here organism as an expression of a larger object that extends
across time and space.Individual mice
and men come to be in dependence on larger forms that are more persistent across
evolutionary time and more pervasive across evolutionary niches at any one
time.That is “something like” what Socrates had in mind.

Evolutionary theory works exactly
the same way that Plato’s theory worked: by recognizing that the caterpillar and
the butterfly as well as the butterfly and the moth are, in a very real sense,
the same things.What is real is mostly
invisible to the eye but visible indeed to the properly educated
intelligence.

To take another example, natural
selection is a robust, Platonic idea.Although we have no Platonic writings about mathematics, he clearly
thought that training in math was essential for philosophy and regarded mathematical
concepts as among the most important ideas.Natural selection is a logical rather than strictly mathematical
principle, but it works the same way as such explicit Platonic ideas as justice
and the good.Natural selection is the
same thing whether it is shaping pathogens or pacifists, liver cells or lush
barflies.

I will close here with one final
example: the pied flycatcher.The male
of this avian species attracts females with the implicit promise he will help
provide for her and her young once they are hatched.He often makes the same promise to a second
female, but there is only some much time he can invest and the second female
will find that she is cheated.The
female that he supports will spend more time warming eggs and chicks with a
payoff of four or five healthy progeny.The cheated female will be lucky if one or two survive.The logic of fidelity and adultery are the
same whether we are talking about avians or apes.I am not sure whether Plato would be pleased
to admit adultery among the ideas, but this Platonist has no problem.

In my paper, I argue that
political autonomy is another expression of biological autonomy.All living organisms build walls between
inside and outside, self and not-self, and maintain what is inside in
resistance against what is outside.Life
is a Russian doll of coalitions, cells in organs, organs in bodies, individuals
in tribes.At every level, the Platonic
idea of autonomy is expressed.

2 comments:

"In my paper, I argue that political autonomy is another expression of biological autonomy. All living organisms build walls between inside and outside, self and not-self, and maintain what is inside in resistance against what is outside. " I think you have got this soo right!Thanks bren